Conference

This past week three out of four of the librarians in our district took off for our annual library conference. It was in Dallas, and I heard there were over 8,000 people that attended this year. We always have a great time. It's like librarians' heaven... good books, good food and good friends. They give away free books, posters, bookmarks, and all kinds of do dads. I always come home with bags of stuff.

The classes I attended were very interesting too, and I always learn some new tricks of the trade. There was a giant exhibit hall with lots of interesting booths, with many new titles that I put on a list to order next year. I also found a few titles I think my little granddaughter will like, and a few for Casey's future classroom.

Every evening there is something going on like having dinner with authors, dessert socials, sock hops, and storytelling to name a few. I'm not too much on the night time stuff. I was usually in bed pretty early. (I know that's hard to believe.)
Here are a few pictures:



This is the view out our hotel window. It was really pretty at night.




They always have someone special for our opening ceremony. One year we had Bill Cosby. This year it was the two authors you see here, Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. They wrote a prequel (several in fact) to Peter Pan called, Peter and the Starcatchers. They were funny and great entertainment.

Some of the ladies really let their hair down. In this picture they are doing the hula hoop with the musicians that are playing...and no you don't see me up there. :)

This is one outing I try not to miss. It's a dessert social put on by one of our book companies. I gain 5 pounds just looking at it.

My friend Debbie and I are showing off the plate of goodies we are about to consume. Boy it was tasty!! We really had a great time. Now it's back to work tomorrow, but only six weeks to go...yea!

So Much Rain!!

Everything is so lush and green this year because of all the rain we've had. The past two or three years we've been in a drought, so this year everything is quite beautiful. I'm not sure how long it will last, our famous summer heat is just around the corner. We're enjoying it while we can.

Shane and Casey were home last weekend and we managed to get the guys away from the card table long enough to take a drive. Casey is from Midland and is not use to all the lakes and ponds around here, so we decided to go up to Lake of the Pines and see the spillway. The wind about blew us away but it was quite a sight. I have never seen that much water being released before. There were a lot of men, women and kids catching fish and having a great time. We didn't have our fishing license or we would have tried fishing also. Maybe next time.

We really enjoyed have the kids home for the weekend. We tried our luck at finding some geocaches and were only able to find one out of three that I had downloaded. Two of them were in a park that had been flooded, and I think were washed away, but at least we found one. That was cache number eleven for me. I'm almost tied with you Megan & Jared. :)

Beauty Shop Day

It's is beauty shop day for Maggie and Ozzie. That means brushing, nail clipping and sometimes a bath. They don't get excited about it all, in fact they are pretty ticked with me long before I finish.

Spring is a great time of year except for little furry animals that stay in the house. I have always fought the spring time shedding (actually I fight shedding all year), but I found a new helper this year. It's called the FURminator, which is a deshedding tool. My vet told me about it and demonstrated on my cat. I could not believe how much hair it took out in just a few strokes. I really didn't want to pay $30 for it, but I had to do something. So, I bought it and I have never been sorry. You can buy them at pet stores, vets and websites like Amazon.com. There are different sizes depending on how large a pet you have.

Maggie, in the photo above, is a real pain. She just doesn't understand that girls are suppose to like getting dolled up. :) Ozzie on the other hand would let you brush him all day. I managed to get a few photos this morning.

Ozzie is one of the few cats I've seen that likes his tummy petted and brushed, but you have to watch out for a ticklish spot.

This is from one swipe down Ozzie's back. I'm always amazed how much hair it pulls out. I know this sounds like an infomercial, but it really is a great tool. It's totally worth the money.